Tigers will pay up to add young gun

DETROIT -- The Detroit Tigers are about to give big money to a pitcher. A high school pitcher.

He's 18-year-old Rick Porcello, and he was the Tigers' top pick in the June draft. Monday, the Tigers and Porcello agreed to a record-setting four-year deal that will guarantee him $7.3 million.

No high school player who signed out of the draft has ever received more than the $7 million that Florida Josh Beckett in 1999. Matt White signed a $10.2-million deal with Tampa Bay in 1996, but only after agent Scott Boras found a loophole that enabled him to declare free agency.

Boras also represents Porcello, and before the draft Boras said Porcello is "the best high school pitcher since Josh Beckett."

Comments like that, and rumors of Porcello's huge demands, were the only reason Porcello was still available to the Tigers, who had the 27th pick in the first round. But even on the day of the draft, most people in the sport expected the Tigers to sign him, and now it appears they will.

In addition to offering Porcello a huge amount of money, the Tigers were able to offer him huge opportunity. They pointed out to him that 2006 first-round pick Andrew Miller has already pitched in the big leagues, that Justin Verlander was in the Tigers' rotation at age 23 and that Joel Zumaya was pitching in the big leagues at 21.

Just this week, the Tigers made the decision to call up 21-year-old Jair Jurrjens, who will start for them Wednesday in Cleveland.

Porcello isn't headed to the big leagues just yet, but the Tigers believe he could also move quick.

Of course they do. That's why they're going to pay him more than $7 million.